


The Chains of Big Brother

by TMar



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 04:05:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16569305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TMar/pseuds/TMar
Summary: Riker loved Soren. Why did her people have to do that?





	The Chains of Big Brother

**Author's Note:**

> Another one from 1992. Some ruminations by Riker on the events of the episode "The Outcast" (which was both an excellent episode and a terrible one - so, naturally, I loved it). Not sure how to tag - Soren's race is androgynous, but Soren thought of herself as female. Compromised by tagging it as 'Other'. If misgendering of an androgynous species might trigger you, stay away.

THE CHAINS OF BIG BROTHER

Commander William T. Riker of the starship Enterprise lay on his side, looking  
over at Soren, who was fast asleep. He counted them lucky that she had been  
assigned quarters on board the Enterprise while they were still charting the  
null space which had required a rescue mission by the Enterprise.

An adrogynous race... that much was true, but Soren, for all the  
appearance of having no gender, was to Riker one of the most wonderful women  
\- he felt he could now use that word - he had ever known... in the Biblical  
or any sense.

When they had taken the walk on her planet, Riker had suddenly been  
overcome by... feelings for this person. Not the primitive feelings the J'naii  
so despised, but the pure ones so prized by humanity. In that second, Riker  
had realised that he loved her. He had known, in that moment, that he would  
do anything to protect her, that he wanted her with all his heart. The fact  
that she had wanted him back had been a source of joy for Will.

Riker had found that which had followed most unusual, but all it had done  
had been to reinforce his love for Soren. Riker remembered love... the first  
time he had really felt it had been when he had met Deanna. That love had  
mellowed, but not gone away. This was love too. Like his love for Deanna, the  
first officer knew that it would not go away either. He didn't want it to. And  
he certainly didn't know what the future would hold for them. But last night,  
he hadn't really cared.

Perhaps that had been foolish of him - the J'naii looked down on gender  
relationships. All they could do was wait and hope.

Riker's eyes focused on Soren, to find her watching him. "Good  
morning..." she said, sounding happier than he'd ever heard her sound.

"Morning."

Soren continued to call him Commander... but from her Riker found it a  
term of affection. "Commander... I want to thank you. For everything. Not just  
for last night, beautiful though it was, but for making me feel as though I  
were normal... It's the first time in my life that I have ever felt that way."

"You ARE normal," Riker assured her.

"To you, yes. But to my people, I am a deviant."

"Perhaps it's time you left your people, then."

"Come with you?"

"Why not?"

She looked away. "I do not think it would be permitted."

"We'll give you asylum." Riker was, as yet, too scared to come right out  
and say that he loved her; the implications of that admission were staggering.

But Soren shook her head. "I feel that would be disloyal."

"Disloyal? Soren, if they find out about you, they'll give you those  
treatments. I can't let them do that to you."

"I will see if there is another way." She began to get up. "Meet me here  
after your duty shift."

Riker put his hand on her arm. "Be careful." Then he kissed her,  
remembering... and she kissed him, then drew away reluctantly. 

"I must go."

"Yeah," said Riker, "I'm due on the bridge."

***

Their appointment later did not work out, because Kryte had been watching  
Soren... and nothing Riker said, not even when he had confessed his love for  
her, had made any difference. 

Later, in his quarters, he sat reading a book which outlined everything  
about that very clearly. It had been a long while since he had read anything  
that could be considered a classic, and he knew his captain would be happy to  
see that he'd finally knuckled down to it. But then, Picard was Guardian of  
the Classics on board the Enterprise and Riker was more the Guardian of the  
Pleasures of the Flesh or some such thing. And until now, William T. Riker had  
been content with that. 

He never showed his feelings that much, but now, when he'd actually  
summoned up the courage to love someone, that person had been taken away from  
him. He looked at the book again; a book that was so much a part of Earth  
culture that everyone knew the cliches coined from it, everyone quoted it,  
even when they didn't know what it was they were quoting. 

He loved Big Brother. That said it all as far as Riker was concerned -  
Deanna Troi had said it to him when he had returned from trying to rescue  
Soren from her fellow J'naii. At the time he had agreed, but only now, after  
reading the book, did Riker fully understand what Soren had gone through.

What had happened to her had happened, too, to any and everybody who had  
ever tried to rebel in a strict society; it made Riker sick to his stomach.  
I was sick... Riker wanted to scream at her from the rooftops: "You're not  
sick! I love you!" The horrible thing was that he'd done that, but it had not  
made one bit of difference. 

And the worst thing was that he could not even be angry with Soren; after  
all, it wasn't her fault. Riker didn't care if the J'Naii gave psychotectic  
therapy to people who WANTED to be cured; that was their own business. But to  
force it onto someone else...

Soren had not wanted to be cured. She had been adamant that there wasn't  
anything wrong with her, and Riker had agreed. But then the J'naii had not  
been brought up on an enlightened planet, and they had certainly not paid  
attention to the Vulcan philosophy of rejoicing in one's differences. How  
could the J'naii be so closed-minded and still expect people to respect their  
way of life? Riker didn't know, so he sought out Deanna Troi.

***

"Will, I wish I knew what to say to you. The truth of the matter is, what you  
want is now different from what Soren wants. She said so herself. And you must  
try to accept it and go on."

"Deanna, I love her. I can't just pretend it didn't happen. I can't  
pretend I've forgotten her, when her words come back to haunt me and I see  
that vacant look after she'd had the treatment. She talked about living a lie,  
about having to hide who she was... She wouldn't have had to do that, here."

Deanna took his hand. "I wish there was something I could do."

Riker tried to smile. "I know there isn't, I just..."

"You needed a sounding board."

"Something like that. I read the book you mentioned, 1984, and it's all  
so clear to me now. Let me get this straight: is our society one of the few  
where they don't censure people for being who they are?"

Troi shook her head, her black curls spilling over her shoulders. "No.  
Humans have a pretty relaxed attitude. In some places humans are even  
considered very primitive."

"That's what she said," Riker answered, a bit sadly.

"Take the Vulcans. They have a wonderful way of censuring those who  
refuse to accept Vulcan discipline. They kill them in their minds. Those  
Vulcans, to their fellows, cease to exist."

The first officer hadn't known that, and was interested. "Really?"

"Really. All references to them are excised from Vulcan records. They are  
never mentioned again. Even if such a Vulcan is an only child and heir to his  
or her family, that person is no more. The Vulcans go on as if they had never  
had a child."

"But the child still lives, lives his or her own life! They didn't give  
Soren that choice."

"I know, Will. But ignorance and fear of disruption are everywhere."

"Hm," replied Will, remembering the disruption the Enterprise had once  
brought to what had seemed a perfect world. "I happen to think a little  
disruption is good for the soul."

Troi remembered another literary passage. "We all have a sleeper that  
needs to be awakened. Only, some people wish to remain asleep." 

"They're fools."

Deanna smiled her sympathetic smile, and Riker realised that their  
conversation was going nowhere fast... yet, the Counselor had cleared up a few  
issues for him.

"You're saying don't think too badly of the J'Naii. Don't hate Soren."

"Yes."

"It's hard, Deanna."

"I know."

"I love her."

"I know."

***

Riker sat back in his quarters, staring at the page. 'He had won the victory  
over himself. He loved Big Brother'. Soren's people had won the victory over  
her. Other societies tried it too, even his own... Riker knew this at last.  
'Big Brother watches all of us,' he thought, 'not only Soren. But at least  
some of us have choices.'

Riker didn't know how long the pain of losing Soren would last... but he  
was grateful to have some choices.

THE END


End file.
